The colors are off using a generic profile.


A generic profile is a profile which is either supplied by Canon, or by a paper supplier for their own paper. Possible causes of color problems:

  • You are using a profile made for the 8 bit operating system driver, but printing with the 16 bit Photoshop Export plug-in or vice versa. You need a different profile for each of these two different methods of driving the printer. Note: According to one poster, the Canon-supplied ICC profiles are ONLY for the 8 bit operating system level driver and should not be used with the 16 bit plugin. This is also true for most all of the third party paper generic profiles (except Crane Museo Silver Rag and profiles for Innova and Hahnemuhle papers from Booksmart Studio). For other papers, if you want to use profiles with the 16 bit plugin, they will have to be custom profiles for optimal color.
  • Your printer differs significantly from the one used to make the generic profile. Andrew Rodney (AKA The Digital Dog) reported signficant variation between two printer targets he measured from different printers. While too small a sample to draw conclusions, there was a suggestion that the Canon printers may have more variance than the Epson printers. You can read the details on the Luminous Landscape Discussion Forum here. If this is the problem, you probably need a custom profile.

Auto Color from the Photoshop Export plug-in doesn't look right to me.


According to C.D. Tobie of Colorvision:

"The export module does not use the correct gamma when printing via the default color (i.e., Auto Color) or grayscale settings, so it must be used with a custom ICC profile."